Join us on Twitter and IRC (#ludumdare on Afternet.org) for the Theme Announcement!

Thanks everyone for coming out! For the next 3 weeks, we’ll be Playing and Rating the games you created.You NEED ratings to get a score at the end. Play and Rate games to help others find your game.We’ll be announcing Ludum Dare 36’s August date alongside the results.

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PSA: As of Chrome 42 (Released April 14th), NPAPI plugins are disabled by default! That means Unity Player, Java, and Silverlight games will not work in the Chrome browser! That said, Flash in the Chrome browser continues to work fine (PPAPI).

To Developers: Consider using HTML5 and WebGL instead. Having troubles with the export? Don’t worry. See Ports below.

To Players: A workaround is to enable NPAPI plugins in your Chrome settings. Click or Copy+Paste this URL in to a tab:

I like the idea, but the weight of the ball makes this thing really hard to control. Realistically it makes sense, but I think it would've been more fun to play if you'd let the player move uninhibited by the weight of the ball.

Otherwise, it's very satisfying to kill stuff with the ball. And then get killed with it yourself.

Really fun and a very clever idea. It's very satisfying, particularly with the sound and blood spatters at the start. I like how you introduced the controls and the gameplay at the start. To extend it you could have more of an adventure mode where you have to navigate smaller tunnels etc and press switches with the ball.

I love the idea of this, reminds me of hammerfight, which was a very fun physics game. I can actually outrun the spike ball's chains, which I find is pretty cool. The gameplay, even though is fun however, is pretty slow, and after about five retries and dying at the fourth wave, I can no longer progress, maybe I am just impatient though.

Really addictive and satisfying, I liked the game mechanic. played around 10 times. Very well instructed the player with the controls on start screen. Graphics are good in it's simplicity, SPLUT!. Music was oke in beginning but could really use more variation.

The most fun part of this game is trying to see how fast you can get that thing spinning, and that is extremely fun. Definitely unconventional too with how hard it is to get used to as a weapon and that it can kill you too.

The GSBoD was unwieldy but it was very satisfying when I managed to destroy the enemies. I liked that you introduced new enemy types that made me rethink my attack plan. I loved that we could deflect bullets with the weapon.Cool take on a double-edged weapon!

A very good compo entry! Simple graphic design, but some nice touches (the background with instructions I like, its texture gives some sense of solidity), sound is present but not disturbing, the physics is fun, and there are multiple kinds of enemies. What's not to like?

I really liked the feeling of weight of the spiky ball. It was a really fun and unique mechanic, but I would have preferred if the scoring was based on enemies killed over time survived (turtling isn't as fun as smashing enemies).

Did you see Flail Rider (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=40591)? It's a little like a 3D isometric version of this with a car.

It was pretty weird using my left hand for controls. Arrow keys are pretty standard, no? Three key layouts and no arrows. =P

Hard game. I kept running into everything. At least the AI isn't smart enough to avoid the ball on its way to get me, so I could sometimes let them come to me. I like how the ball reflected laser shots from the pink boxes. Adding the big dumb box that takes a couple of hits to kill was nice, too.

The instructions written on the center of the arena were a nice touch.

Nice game. Next time replace your dropbox url's 'www' with 'dl', then it will download automatically. For example: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/8ulnora2sf4d7cp/Giant%20Spiky%20Ball%20of%20Death.zip?dl=0, instead of https://www.dropbox.com/s/8ulnora2sf4d7cp/Giant%20Spiky%20Ball%20of%20Death.zip?dl=0. Fun game, good job!

Great game! Awesome take on the theme and fun to play. The controls take a bit getting used to but once you do, it's very enjoyable. The one thing I wish was that the number of people you killed counted towards your score in some way, because it's much harder to stay alive while killing people than just trying to survive. Maybe time + kills = your score? I don't know, just a thought. Good job!

I love this one! It's REALLY addictive, although I find it hard, I always want to do one more try.
The graphics are so effective, including all the 'swapped mosquito'stains!
And surprisingly, the music doesn't get annoying after playing for quite a while (I would have given sound a good vote, you know?).

This is so close to just being stupid fun. However the control just feels a bit 'slippery'. It might be more 'physical' correct, but the game would imo have been more fun with full control over the player.

I don't know if controlling a conventional weapon unconventionally makes it an unconventional weapon, but I can say with certainty that the game was pretty fun! The aesthetics of the game were pretty good, but it would have been nice to see something more interesting than rectangles. Still, good job!

I think the controls are a little floaty, it would have been good if you could turn quicker and more accuracy in your movement. That would have made the early game easy but fun, then you could have ramped up the number of enemies. I did really like it and played for quite a while, deflecting bullets was especially fun

Mini Submission FAQ

TEAMS: Teams entering the Jam should pick a single representative to submit your game, or create a team specific account you can share. We currently do not support Team Voting, but sharing an account and together playing and rating games is acceptable.

CAN I ENTER BOTH EVENTS?: You should pick 1 event, whichever you think it’ll do better in. If the idea is strong, and everything plays well enough, you can go Compo. If you’re a perfectionist, and would prefer people to play a more polished game, do the Jam. Historically, more games are entered in the Compo, but with more people and more time, Jam games have the potential to be better (that doesn’t mean they are). Many solo participants do enter the Jam.

If you made 2 games, unfortunately, the website doesn’t support multiple submissions per user. To submit your 2nd game, you will have to make a 2nd account. Only do this if you made 2 games. Alternatively, if one game is better than the other, then consider just entering the better game.

CAN I KEEP WORKING UNTIL THE DEADLINE?: Yes! Immediately after the 48 or 72 hours, we do something called Submission Hour. As the name suggests, it’s an extra hour for you to package, upload, and submit your games. If there were catastrophic issues trying submitting your game, or you misunderstood how submissions work, that’s okay. It happens. We’re flexible. If you need advice, check with the folks on IRC. If you need an admin, get in touch.

CAN I KEEP WORKING ON MY GAME?: Oh definitely! You should! But for the sake of judging, keep the Compo or Jam version around. You can include a link to the Post-Compo/Post-Jam version of your game on your games page, but sure your main links are the original version.

PORTS: Ports to other platforms can be done after the deadline. That said, the sooner you finish your port, the sooner people can play your game, improving your chances of placing in the final results. For best results, provide a Web version of your game, or a Windows version with no dependencies. Also be sure to rate at least 20 games to improve your visibility (Coolness).

MY GAME CRASHES, IS UNBEATABLE, OR I MADE A TYPO: We allow you to fix crashes, win condition, or tiny bugs after the deadline. In a sense, this is like “porting” to support more players. We leave this open to interpretation, but generally speaking your game should be identical to the game you submitted. No new features, just fixing mistakes you should have caught had you been better rested.

MY GAME DOESN’T SHOW UP: If you can’t find your game, it’s usually because the URL to your downloads are missing ‘http://‘. Fix your URLs (http://mysite.com/mygame.zip) and you will show up. Alternatively, if you just posted it, wait a minute. The cache may not have refreshed yet.

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